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Northern Ireland councils exceed target planning application processing time by 93%
Councils in Northern Ireland exceeded the target processing time for major planning decisions by 93% in 2022-23, according to newly published government data.
The annual Northern Ireland planning statistics bulletin, which covers the period between April 2022 and March 2023, revealed that average processing time for major applications was 57.8 weeks across all councils.
This amounts to an increase of eight weeks compared with the previous financial year, and exceeded the 30-week target by almost 28 weeks, or 93%.
No council met the 30-week target in 2022-23.
The number of planning applications received by councils dropped 18% to 11,217 compared with the previous year.
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The data also showed that 10,771 planning applications were decided during 2022-23 – a decrease of 17%.
The planning applications received were made up of 11,072 local, 144 major, and one regionally significant application.
Decisions were issued on 10,620 local, 150 major, and one regionally significant application during 2022-23.
The average processing time for local applications brought to a decision or withdrawal was 19 weeks across all councils, four weeks above the 15-week target and representing an increase of 1.8 weeks from the previous financial year.
Three of the 11 councils met the 15-week target in 2022-23.
According to the Department for Infrastructure, which published the data, there have been some key events over the past two years that will have impacted on planning activity and processing performance.
It said: “These were the coronavirus pandemic with varying restrictions in place up until February 2022, the accessibility of the system for some users for a period during January and February 2022, and a significant change in IT planning systems with the development and implementation of two new planning systems in June and December 2022.
“All these factors should be borne in mind when interpreting these figures and when making comparisons with other time periods.”
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